A logo is an important aspect of any business and this guide will provide you with information, tools and resources to create the best company logo design for your brand. Logos need to be beautiful and functional – they represent our businesses in so many different ways so they must also be effective, and when it comes to creating your company logo design there are plenty of resources available to help you create the best one. Whether you want to create your logo yourself, work with a reputable logo designer or a high-quality online logo generator, we’ve provided all the best tools and resources in the industry to help you create the company logo design you’re looking for.

Let’s jump into everything you need to know about how to create the best logo design for your company.

Bonus: We’ve curated and pre-vetted 50 logo designers to help you with your next company logo design project. Whether your budget is $100 or $5,000, we have you covered. To access the directory of logo designers, click here.

What Makes a Great Company Logo Design

A logo is a window into the personality of a company and acts as a visual representation of the brand. What makes a great company logo design for one business might not make a great logo for another – it’s entirely dependant on each business’ individual identity. Ultimately, what a great comapny logo comes down to is that it’s an authentic representation of the business and all the elements that make up the logo itself work together harmoniously.

Beyond pairing design elements together seamlessly and authentically communicating the brand’s identity, a great company logo must also function appropriately for the places that it’s required to act as the face of the business. This means that the logo must be the right size, shape, resolution and color so that it can adapt to all the necessary circumstances it might be required to perform.

A logo is used for many different functions: it might be used for apparel, merchandise, products, digital marketing, print marketing, advertisements, social media profile photos and banners, etc. Each of these circumstances will have varying size, shape, resolution and possibly even color requirements that your logo needs to be able to meet. A great business logo design will be able to function under each circumstance without losing impact, quality and composition, and ultimately without losing its ability to communicate the brand’s identity.

Elements of a Company Logo Design

We discussed all of the business logo design elements in detail in our How to Create a Unique and Memorable Logo: The Comprehensive Guide post, but what it essentially comes down to is the color, icon and typeface. A great business logo design will pair these three elements together seamlessly so that each element complements the other while fulfilling the ultimate goal of authentically representing the brand.

Color: Logos can be in color or in black and white, but if you’re choosing to use color you must also have a black and white version of your company logo design as color logos may not always be appropriate for all marketing or advertising circumstances. When thinking about the color of your logo – or perhaps lack of color – take the psychology of color into consideration so your logo makes the impact you intend for it to make.

Icons: Icons can also evoke different psychological meanings whether you choose to use circular, square or triangular shapes, or any other type of image. Consider whether you want to use icons such as cartoons, initials, lettering, or any other relevant shapes for your business logo design.

Typeface: Typeface plays a huge role into the how your audience will perceive your business as it helps to convey your brand’s voice. Some typefaces give off a very classic and elegant feel, while others can give off a modern, contemporary, playful or quirky feel so choose your typefaces wisely.

In order for you to create a great company logo design that makes the best possible use of these design elements, you must know your brand inside and out so you can communicate your brand’s identity to a logo designer, or be able to configure the elements yourself – whichever method you choose.

Types of Company Logo Designs

There are all types of company logo designs from different genres of business and services that use the three main design elements – color, icons and typefaces – differently. Off the top of your head you can probably think of different types of logos: Nike, Netflix, Warner Brothers, Coca-Cola – but what category do these logos fall under? It’s important to think about this because identifying different types of company logo designs will help you understand why businesses choose the logo designs that they do to represent their brands, and it will help you to determine the type of logo design that will best represent your business.

One of the best online logo generators, Logojoy, has created a massive database of different types of company logo designs ranging from apparel and fashion logos, automotive logos, blog logos, cosmetics and beauty logos, film and TV logos, food and drink logos, marketing and PR logos, and much more. There are over 1,200 logos from 42 different industries so you can get a bird’s eye view of all different types of company logo designs plus tips and tricks for font, color and layout to help you understand each logo type in more detail.

While we discuss some of the most popular types of company logo designs below, refer back to Logojoy’s database of logos and see if you can categorize those logos by type to figure out which businesses have opted for which type of logo.

Let’s jump into the most popular types of company logo designs.

Minimalist Logo Designs

Minimalist logo designs are by far the most common type of company logo design, mostly because they’re classic, timeless and professional. Since it’s the most popular type of logo we’ve thoroughly broken down what makes a minimalist logo design what it is, and we’ve included a list of 40+ designers we’ve curated that specialize in creating minimalist logo designs.

What is a Minimalist Logo

A minimalist logo is a logo that uses simplistic and strategic design elements to create a beautiful and functional logo that maintains impact without being overwhelming. Minimalist logo designs use elements like color, shapes and fonts carefully so as to cleverly convey the identify of a brand, and every element is used with a purpose. When it comes to minimalist logos there’s no room for overly-decorative design elements that bear no meaningful representation to the brand, and minimalist logo designers tend to create the logos by a “less is more” philosophy.

A minimalist logo uses the exact amount of design elements needed to represent the essence of a brand without being too overdone, over the top or decorative. Minimalist logos are one of the most popular types of company logo designs because they are timeless and never go out of style. Because they’re so simple and classic, they also represent businesses in a professional manner, which is the type of persona many businesses try to convey.

What Minimalist Logos Are & Aren’t

Minimalist Logos Are:

Simple

Classic

Elegant

Refined

Clever

Strategic

Sparse

Spacious

Understated

Effortless

Minimalist Logos Aren’t:

Gaudy

Tacky

Dated

Chunky

Clunky

Busy

Overwhelming

Kitschy

Distracting

Elaborate

What Makes a Great Minimalist Logo

Just like a great logo, a great minimalist logo must represent the essence of a brand’s identity, pair design elements together beautifully and be able to function wherever it’s needed most. In addition, a great minimalist logo must also embrace minimalist ideals (such as simplicity, spaciousness and sparseness) without misrepresenting the brand. Some brand’s identities may be the opposite of minimalist ideals, so it’s important when creating a minimalist logo design that the minimalist ideals don’t do a disservice to the brand by focusing too much on keeping the design simple, spacious and sparse if it doesn’t authentically represent the brand. In order for a minimalist logo to work for a brand it must be tailored to fit the brand’s identity and if that means adhering by some minimalist ideals but being flexible for others, then that’s okay.

A great minimalist logo uses just enough design elements to portray the brand’s identity authentically without leaving anything out, and without overdoing it. Minimalist logos are best when they’re effortlessly impactful.

Elements of Minimalist Logo Design

The use of design elements is really what sets minimalist logo designs apart from other logo designs and these are the most important elements that make the biggest difference:

Strategic Arrangement of Shapes

Minimalist logos use shapes as part of the overall design of the logo and they don’t use shapes, images or icons as extra decoration that is irrelevant to the overall logo. Since minimalist logos are designed with a “less is more” approach every aspect of the design counts towards the whole so the icons need to be relevant and a useful part of the overall logo design.

Embracing Open Space

Minimalist logos embrace open space and either use it as part of the logo to fill in the blanks, or they just let the logo be surrounded by the space without feeling the need to fill the space with additional decoration. By embracing space in the way the designer has in the above images he is able to create a scene without having to draw the entire picture, which gives context and complexity to his designs while still being quite minimal and spacious.

Intentional Typography Pairings

When dealing with minimal design elements, making smart typography choices is paramount. Not all logos will be primarily type based but some are (like ours), and the typefaces need to work together seamlessly to create a logo that works well as a whole and doesn’t appear awkward or disjointed.

Minimal logos are all about simplicity but that doesn’t mean you have to completely shy away from using color, it usually just means that more curated color pallets are selected. Color is very important when it comes to logos – customers can identify a brand just based on the color in some cases, just check out the BrandColors resource – so it’s important that the color of your logo accurately reflects your brand. If you’re aiming for a minimalist logo design you might want to stick to just one or two colors, a muted color palette, or even monochromatic shades. By using too much color or colors that don’t pair well together, it can leave your logo feeling overwhelming or busy which is not ideal if you’re aiming for a minimalist logo design.

A Purpose for Every Element

It’s so important with minimalist logo designs that every design element whether it’s a color, typeface, shape or icon, has a purpose and is used intentionally. For your logo to achieve a minimalist look it needs to be simple, clean, spacious and effortless, and in order to achieve all those things every design element must have a purpose to make the overall logo get closer to those goals, or else it’s unnecessary. Unnecessary design elements will only work against you by making the logo seem more busy than it needs to be so make sure every element of the logo plays a role towards being visual representation the brand that’s functional and minimalistic.

To help you save time vetting minimalist logo designers yourself, we’ve created a list of minimalist logo designers at varying price points that we’ve personally sought out. Bear in mind that just because we’ve contacted each designer individually we haven’t personally worked with them so you’ll need to do your own due diligence to make sure they’re the right logo designer for you.

Check out this list and search each of these designers on Instagram to get a glimpse into their work.

Bold Logo Designs

Bold logo designs are similar to minimalist logo designs in that they’re quite simple and sparse, but Bold logo designs are primarily typeface based, meaning the majority of their logo is not comprised of an icon and the type of typeface they use is strong, clear and bold.

What is a Bold Logo Design

A bold logo design makes a statement and commands attention without being overwhelming or overbearing. It uses strong, blocky typefaces that are clear to read, and robust color choices that are powerful but not too over the top. Bold logo designs exude confidence and professionalism and instill trust in their audience.

What Bold Logo Designs Are & Aren’t

Bold Logos Are:

Strong

Clear

Concise

Robust

Solid

Stable

Substantial

Powerful

Direct

Effective

Bold Logos Aren’t:

Quirky

Busy

Playful

Delicate

Petite

Unassuming

Weak

Gentle

Mild

Ineffective

What Makes a Great Bold Logo Design

A great bold logo design will typically only use one typeface and two contrasting color choices to make one big statement. In terms of icons, bold logo designs focus on using square, rectangular or triangle shapes – anything with points, straight lines and corners – to add to its directness. A bold logo design is great when it uses simple design elements to make a big impact.

Playful Logo Designs

Playful logo designs are typically the opposite of minimalist and bold logo designs because they’re often quirky, colorful and fun. Their design elements stray from the sparseness of minimalist logo designs and the directness of bold logo designs by using flowery typefaces, circular shapes and bright colors.

What is a Playful Logo Design

A playful logo design is focused less on exuding a rigid, professional persona and more on appearing bubbly, bright and fun loving. Brands that use playful logo designs often include companies related to selling products for children, but not always! It really depends on the company and whether a bubbly logo design fits their brand.

What Playful Logo Designs Are & Aren’t

Playful Logo Designs Are:

Bright

Bubbly

Busy

Fun

Whimsical

Delightful

Personable

Amusing

Lively

Pleasant

Playful Logo Designs Aren’t:

Dark

Dull

Rigid

Overly Professional

Stuffy

Gentle

Subtle

Muted

Monotonous

Tame

What Makes a Great Playful Logo Design

A great playful logo design will use design elements that are exciting and enticing to look at. Playful logo designs are eye catching, so a great logo design needs to use bright colors, interesting typefaces and fun shapes. A great playful logo design will also be able to make a busy logo that’s full of interesting design elements not be too overwhelming.

Vintage Logo Designs

Vintage logo designs are inspired by design elements from the past such as classic shapes, retro features or timeless typefaces. Some vintages logos may have been made in modern day to look vintage, while others simply were made decades ago and never updated to pay homage to their roots.

What is a Vintage Logo Design

Vintage logo designs use nostalgic design elements to create a traditional and timeless logo. These types of logos typically use sophisticated color palettes, retro typefaces and tasteful icons to create a logo reminiscent of past decades. Some vintage logos are quite simple and discreet, while others can have plenty of ornamental aspects that reflect popular design styles from different eras.

What Vintage Logo Designs Are & Aren’t

Vintage Logo Designs Are:

Retro

Nostalgic

Stylized

Traditional

Timeless

Sentimental

Sophisticated

Refined

Polished

Tasteful

Vintage Logo Designs Aren’t:

Modern

Contemporary

Stylish

Trendy

Daring

Rough

Direct

Bold

Edgy

Blunt

What Makes a Great Vintage Logo Design

A great vintage logo design is immediately recognizable because it evokes a sense of nostalgia in the audience. It stays true to the design subtleties of the era it refers to, whether overtly or subtly, and sticks to traditional design features. Vintage logos won’t work for all businesses but when they are relevant to a company’s brand it can give customers a familiar and rustic feeling.

Logo Design Inspiration

There are plenty of resources for logo design inspiration but the best places to pursue logo design inspiration are the two biggest visual sharing platforms: Pinterest and Instagram.

Searching Pinterest for Logo Inspiration

To search for company logo design inspiration on Pinterest, simply use search terms such as “Company Logo,” “Business Logo,” “Brand Logo,” or other related keywords in the search bar. With Pinterest you’re able to scroll through hundreds of images easily, making it an efficient platform to search for inspiration on.

When scrolling through the business logo designs take note of the design elements you see that you like, such as the use of color, icons, or typography, so you can share your interests with your logo designer if you choose to work with one in the future. Even if you plan to design your business’ logo yourself you’ll still probably want to reference the logos you like later, so be sure to save them to a board.

Take note of which styles of company logos you’re drawn to, such as type-based logos or icon based logos, and also think about where you need your logo to be able to function and if your prefered style of logo lends itself well to the functions you need it to fulfill. For example, if you need your logo to function on social platforms for profile pictures your logo will likely need some sort of icon that you can use for your profile pictures as a text-based logo may not fit within the social platform’s constraints effectively. Check out this post by Logojoy for a Step by Step Guide to Using Your Logo on Social Media.

Searching Instagram for Logo Inspiration

Instagram is another great place to search for company logo design inspiration as there are two ways you can search: By hashtag or by designer. If you’re just looking for general inspiration, start searching through hashtags like “Logo,” “Brand Logo,” “Business Logo,” or “Company Logo” or any other keyword variations such as the type of logo you’re specifically looking for, and scroll through the results that pop up. Click on logos you like and see which accounts have posted them. If you’re lucky it’ll be the designer that posted the image, but if not just tap on the image once to see if the original designer has been tagged in the image or check the comments section to see if the designer has been credited.

This is how you’ll find logo designers on Instagram and once you do you’ll be able to look through their portfolio of work that they share on their Instagram feeds. On designer’s accounts, check through their “Following” list to see if they follow other logo designers that also make business logos you like. When you find logos you like on Instagram, don’t forget to save them to your “Saved” posts by tapping the flag underneath the image on the bottom right hand side. This way you can refer back to the images later when it comes time to actually designing your business’ logo.

When it comes time to design your company logo, there are a few different routes you can take to create your logo: You can use an online logo generator, a logo designer or design the logo yourself. We’re going to dive into all of these methods now and what each of them pertains.

How to Make a Logo Using an Online Logo Generator

When designing a minimalist logo, an online logo generator can easily and quickly create logo designs for you that you can either purchase as-is, or perform minor tweaks such as color or font changes to make the logo exactly what you’re looking for.

Creating a company logo design with an online logo generator is a great way to get started because it usually only takes a few minutes of your time to take an interactive quiz so the AI technology can learn your style preferences, then the generator can quickly create several logo styles for you to choose from.

Online logo generators are usually free to use so they’re low risk – you only pay for the logo once you’ve created it and love it, so you don’t have to purchase a logo you don’t love and won’t use. Unlike working with designers, who usually take anywhere from weeks to months to create a logo, logo generators create the logos in a matter of minutes and you’ll have several variations to choose from. Compared to designers, logos created by online generators are also less expensive, sometimes significantly, which can be advantageous if you’re on a bootstrapped budget.

That being said, logo generators have their disadvantages. Unlike a designer who can take the time to learn about your company and really get to know your brand so they can infuse its personality into your logo design, logo design generators can only do that to a certain extent. Although logo generators are made of sophisticated artificial intelligence technology, they can’t replace the human mind when it comes to creativity and innovation, yet. So if you’re looking for something truly bespoke, a logo designer may be your ideal option.

That being said, these are the top logo generators we’d recommend if you want to create a beautiful, functional, high-quality company logo design on a budget:

We’ve discussed some of these logo generators and others in greater deal in our Logo Generator Resource Roundup post, so check that out if you want to learn more about each one.

Finding Great Logo Designers

If a creating a company logo design through an online logo generator isn’t what you’re looking for, then hiring a designer may be a better option for you. If you’re looking for something more bespoke and tailored to your brand’s personality, then a designer is a better choice than an online logo generator that can only understand your style preferences. While an online generator can still create beautiful logos that may suit your exact needs, a successful logo designer is a master at pairing design elements together to provide you with the beautiful and functional design that you’re looking for.

Designers freelance their services at all different price points – some not much more than an online logo generator – and they also offer different services including how many logo concepts they prepare and how many revisions they allow, etc. You’ll have to inquire with each designer individually to understand what their prices are and how many concepts and revisions they provide for their price. Also remember that working with a designer will usually take a lot longer than creating a logo with a logo generator. It can take weeks or sometimes even months to have a company logo design custom created by a designer so take that into consideration if you’re interested in working with a logo designer.

Where to Find High Quality Logo Designers

Finding a logo designer to work with that suits your tastes and fits your budget can be the most difficult part of the logo design process. Oftentimes it takes companies a lot of time to search through various online platforms, marketplaces and websites to find the logo designer that’s perfect for them. If you’re looking to find a high-quality logo designer to create a logo for your company, business or brand there are many places you can search online.

No matter what budget you have to work with whether it’s less than $100 or more than $10,000, there’s a designer to suit your needs, you’ll just need to search for them on the right platform.

1. Instagram

Instagram is a great place to suss out logo designers because you’re able to view many different profiles simply by searching through a few hashtags or keywords. You have access to view so many different designer’s profiles and you can even check out their history of work and their clientele. There’s a huge variety of designers at different price points on Instagram including designers who are just getting started to seasoned veterans. If you don’t have a solid idea of what kind of logo you want to create or just want to get a sense of what’s on the market, check out logo designers on Instagram to see what’s out there. It’s also super easy to get in touch with designers on Instagram through the Direct Message feature so you can easily communicate with them about their price, schedule and the amount of concepts/revisions they will create.

2. Dribbble

Dribbble is the online hub for designers of all kinds to show and tell their projects, and you’ll find many logo designers on there. In fact, when you’re searching through designers on Instagram you may notice that many of them link back to their Dribbble profiles. It’s one of the main marketplaces logo designers go to promote their work, and it’s a place where you can go to hire designers. Either search for designers by skill set, experience, rate or location, or if you have something in particular in mind just post a job and let designers come to you. Like Instagram, you’ll find a variety of designers on Dribbble ranging from different niches to different price points so if you need a specific logo for your company Dribbble is one of the best places to look.

3. Behance

Behance is a very similar platform to Dribbble in that it’s a marketplace for creatives to show off their work. Filter and search by popular creative fields such as Graphic Design or Branding to find a logo designer whose style you like, or post a job if there’s something specific you’re looking for. On Behance you can follow designers you like and even reach out to them if you’re interested in learning more about their services or hiring them for your company logo design project.

4. Fiverr

Fiverr is an online freelance services marketplace that offers just about any kind of creative service that can be outsourced, including logo design. If you’re on a lean budget or need a decent logo made quickly then Fiverr might be a great resource for you. Services for logo design on Fiverr can range anywhere from $100-$200, but it depends on the project and the freelancer. Typically, the freelancers on Fiverr won’t give you the same experience as working with an independant designer who takes the time to learn about your company, but if you’re willing to search through the talent on there you can likely find a freelancer that can design the perfect logo for you.

The final option to source designers online includes logo design contests. On marketplaces such as 99designs and Crowdspring you can create a contest for logo designers to create a logo that meets your needs and once several designers have created a logo for your contest you select your favourite and pay the chosen designer for their work. Logo design contests are a great way to see many different logo design options for your company, but they’re slightly controversial in the design community because the majority of the designers who contribute work to the contests don’t get compensated. It’s up to you if logo design contests are a route that you want to pursue, but if so, these are two marketplaces you can check out (both offer money back guarantee policies)

Pre-Vetted Logo Designers

We’ve curated and pre-vetted 50 logo designers to help you with your next company logo design project. Whether your budget is $100 or $5,000, we have you covered. To access the directory of logo designers, click here or see the embedded directory below.

Please note that we contacted all the logo designers listed to acquire pricing and details. In the directory, we have converted quoted pricing from all currencies to USD. In addition, pricing and details may change over time.

How to Create a Logo Design Brief

When working with a logo designer to create a logo design for your company, business or brand, you’re likely going to want to present them with a logo design brief. A logo design brief is essentially a document that details important information about your company, the logo you’re looking to create and other necessary information that helps the logo designer create the best company logo design for your business that’s authentic to your brand, looks how you want it to look and functions how you need it to function.

Recently at A Better Lemonade Stand we’ve been in the process of upgrading our company logo design and when reaching out to logo designers we presented them with a thorough document detailing all the necessary information a logo designer might need to create the perfect logo for our brand. The response that we got from logo designers was overwhelmingly positive and they appreciated having an insider’s perspective on our business and having so much information that they could work off of.

Obviously we know our brand better than anybody else so it was important that we communicated our brand effectively to the logo designers we were sampling so they could do their jobs to the best of their abilities.

This is the information we included in our logo design brief:

Deliverable: In one sentence we outlined exactly what we were looking the logo designer to provide. Example: “A clean, modern, friendly and fun logo that captures the essence of our brand.”

An outline of the design elements that our logo needed to include: Our company name, our tagline and a pictorial/logomark (some type of pictorial mark that can be used alone or in conjunction with the name/tagline to identify the brand).

A small description about where our logo needs to function. Example: “It needs to fit within the allotted constraints of our website and be able to be identifiable in social platform profile images.”

A quick note about what we don’t want from our logo such as certain pictorials we don’t think suit our brand or aren’t the specific direction we’re interested in going.

General information about the business. This section is basically a bullet point crash course about the general landscape of the business: Our business name, tagline, website, industry, founding date, number of employees, main competitors, reason for our brand name, 5 keywords that describe our brand, the primary message we want to convey to our audience and important history about our brand (which for us included our Started from the Bottom & A Better, Better Lemonade Stand blog posts).

A short elevator pitch describing our business and brand in 5 sentences or less. What we do, why we do it and who we do it for.

An extended paragraph about what our business is all about. This discusses points mentioned in the elevator pitch in greater detail and really describes our business’ goals, what’s important to us and why it’s important to us in more depth.

We included our manifesto. This may not be a necessary inclusion for all businesses, especially if you’re just starting out and haven’t developed something like a manifesto yet, but for us it was an important part of our business to include.

We included images of our current logo, our brand colors and the typography and fonts that we use so the logo designer knows exactly where we’re at when it comes to our company logo design at the moment.

We identified the three main challenges that we face with our current logo and described why they were challenging and what we were hoping to change.

We included pictures of exactly where our logo will be displayed so the logo designer has an image of exactly where the logo needs to be functional on both our website and social media.

We included about 10 images of logos that we like to give an indication of our style and the direction we wanted our new logo to take.

As you can see, that’s a lot of information (it was nearly a 20 page document) but we felt that it was important that our new logo reflect our brand authentically and all this information would help the logo designer who probably had no idea who we are understand our brand better. If you’re reaching out to designers to create your company logo design, we highly recommend creating your own logo design brief so the designer you work with has the best possible opportunity to understand your brand.

How to Choose a Final Company Logo Design

If you want to make sure that you’re making the right choice when it comes to your company logo design – it is a big decision after all – then have a few logo designs made and get others to help you make the final choice with you.

A designer is certainly capable of making beautiful and functional logos, but it doesn’t always mean that the most expensive designer will make the best logo for your business. Essentially it all comes down to the creativity of the individual designer and even less expensive designers, or designers who are just starting out, may be able to better reflect the essence of your brand in a logo than a more pricey designer can.

If you think this might be the case for you, source logo designs from a few different places and then weigh your options later once you can compare them to one another. Get a logo designed by a couple low-mid priced designers, get a few logos from different logo generators and make a logo yourself. Compare the results to yourself, family and friends, coworkers, business partners, a mentor or even a selection of customers whom you trust. Don’t tell them which logos were created by a designer, a generator, or yourself – get them to guess and get them to pick their favorite one before you reveal where each design was created. This process may give you some interesting insight.

Alternatively you can also use a service such as PickFu to get anonymous opinions from people who have no affiliate to you or your business by voting on your logo choices. You simply ask the question on PickFu and you’ll get 50 responses immediately to help you make your final decision. This is a great option if you need unbiased opinions!

Conclusion

When it comes down to it, a company logo design needs to be beautiful and functional all while authentically portraying your brand, so we hope that the information and resources in this post can help you make the best decisions when it comes to designing a company logo for your business. No matter what budget you’re on there’s options for you to create a logo that reflects your brand, engages your customers and helps you put your best foot forward so you can always make a good impression wherever your logo represents your brand.